During Ronald Reagan's 1966 campaign for governor of California, Republicans established the so-called Eleventh Commandment: "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican."

It was proposed by State Republican Chairman Gaylord Parkinson to help prevent a repeat of the liberal Republican assault on Barry Goldwater that laid the foundation for Goldwater's trouncing in the 1964 presidential election. Just as Nelson Rockefeller and his East Coast cronies had branded Goldwater as an "extremist" who was unfit to hold office, so Reagan's Republican primary opponent, George Christopher, and California's liberal Republicans were leveling similar personal attacks on Reagan. Party liberals eventually followed Parkinson's advice, and the rest is history.

For liberal Republicans, the Eleventh Commandment is a one-way street, a street on which conservatives always get run over. It is time we strike back and make them pay for their hypocrisy. There is adequate precedent as shown, for example, on March 5, 2002.

While it wasn't the only factor, failure to observe the Eleventh Commandment undoubtedly played a role in the unprecedented implosion of Richard Riordan's gubernatorial campaign in California. It was déjà vu for Republican veterans when, for example, in the death throes of his failed campaign, Riordan invoked the ghosts of Rockefeller and Christopher by branding his Republican primary opponent, Bill Simon, as an "extremist." Following suit, Gray Davis invoked the ghosts of Lyndon Johnson and Pat Brown by repeating Riordan's charge.

Too frequently for their fellow Republicans' tastes, liberals like Riordan have endorsed, and (in Riordan's case) even financed, Democrats running against their Republican colleagues. What, after all, would constitute a greater violation of the Eleventh Commandment than endorsing a fellow Republican's opponent? How much more ill can one speak of a Republican than saying a Democrat is preferable?

Riordan's conservative "teammates" -- roughly two thirds of the Republicans who voted on March 5th -- answered these questions by sending him to the bench in the March Primary.

It's not that California conservatives haven't been willing to get behind a "moderate" or even a flaming liberal like Riordan. On the contrary, many conservatives joined the Riordan bandwagon early on to maximize the chances of defeating Gray Davis. But, there was always an undercurrent warning that Riordan's endorsement and contribution record left his Republican credentials suspect.

With the declining fortunes of the California Republican Party, many elected Republican officials have gone out of their way to curry favor of Democrats. Displaying no sense of Party loyalty, numerous Republican City Council members, for example, often contribute money and endorsements to help Democrats.

To defend themselves, liberal Republicans often attempt to turn the Eleventh Commandment on its ear. They charge any Republican who dares criticize them for supporting a Democrat with an Eleventh Commandment transgression.

Is this expected to pass as rational thought?

Sometimes they claim that they "vote for the person, not the party," or they are independent minded, or they are original thinkers.

Horse feathers!

Politicians never register with a political party without calculating the value in doing so. The honest thing for an elected official who wants to pick and choose candidates from both Republican and Democrat slates would be to register with no party specified.

Many voters indeed find some of their ideas in both parties and, as a consequence, split their ballots between Democrats and Republicans. They do so in the privacy of the voting booth, and it's their right to do so. They're doing their civic duty to the best of their ability. But, they are not using the prestige of an elected office to influence large numbers of voters at the expense of their colleagues.

Most serious politicians realize that choosing no political party is a non-starter that would severely restrict their chances of being elected to higher office. Belonging to either of the major political parties is a huge advantage in seeking partisan office, because minor parties rarely elect major candidates.

Thus, Republican loyalists are justified in expecting elected officials either to support their Party's candidates or to simply remain silent. An elected Republican who repeatedly violates the Eleventh Commandment by publicly endorsing a Democrat over a fellow Party member is pursuing a self-destructive course. As the March 2002 Primary results show, Golden State Republican voters will eventually impose the Golden Rule.

And so it should be for conservatives everywhere who sign the "Conservative Declaration of Independence." Conservatives must come to realize that too often liberals hide behind the Eleventh Commandment and demean us as they see fit, all the while demanding that we honor the Commandment.

Conservatives are entitled to self-defense when liberals violate the Eleventh Commandment!

Blindly clinging to this restriction on answering liberal Republican attacks is similar in folly and fecklessness to the early American Colonial Army practice of lining up on the battlefield to exchange fire with the superior British lines. America's Revolutionary War successes began when our soldiers untied their own hands by conducting war with Britain free of conventional British war tactics.

Similarly, we conservatives must reject the one-sided war tactics imposed on us by the current big-government leadership of the Republican Party. In the name of liberty and in the spirit of self defense, we conservatives should go forward and brand a liberal for what he or she is, unfettered by irrational allegiance to the Eleventh Commandment.